With COP26 (Nov 2021) taking place in Glasgow, our Pride Road Lionesses have been considering how UK housing contributes to climate change and what can be done about the situation, as Sandy, who recently opened Pride Road South Warwickshire, explains:
“Domestic space and water heating accounts for 18% of the UK’s annual CO2 emissions. Improving the energy efficiency of new buildings is not enough to slow climate change because by 2050 80% of today’s housing will still be in use.
Instead, as a nation we need to reduce the amount of energy we use, but as homeowners we also need to think about future costs of heating our homes and the quality of the life we lead in them. Doing nothing to improve how our homes function or making the wrong decisions can have an adverse effect on our health and happiness.
Research by experts has shown that as a nation we can’t rely only on decarbonising the grid or keeping our fingers crossed that new technical advances will appear at the eleventh hour to save us all from climate breakdown. Instead we need to reduce the energy we require to ensure we can maintain or improve our well-being.
The good news is that the techniques and products are available now to cut our homes’ energy demands by the 70% that is required to ensure we have the most positive impact on our environment and on the health of ourselves and our property.
And whenever we undertake alterations we have an opportunity to move towards really future-proofing ourselves, whether our clients want a major refurbishment or just a few minor changes. After all, we don’t want to existentially ‘paint ourselves into a corner with no way out!’.”
